“A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22, ESV).
Not long after my oldest son’s death, I needed a laughter reality check. I am a solemn person, and grief intensified my lack of humor. Winter had set in, and we were cooped up in the house. I kept getting sick, and the discs in my lower back weren’t staying in place. My bones literally ached with sorrow, and I gave into bitterness over my loss. Little things that I would have previously shrugged off weighed heavier on me. I sunk inward. My husband snapped me out of my funk with a funny post about a local police station that had put out an APB on Elsa for all of the foot of snow that shut down our community. The description went viral. Why? Because laughter is good medicine.
A joyful heart combats my sorrow and changes my focus on Jesus rather than my circumstances. What a good God to make laughter and tears such close neighbors. I can acknowledge pain and then release it. I can be in the middle of sobs, and then my daughter says something quirky, and I am instantly in stitches laughing. As I grieved, I invited friends to send me jokes. I need to laugh. I need to find the splinter of light in my shattered heart. Do we think the God of the universe who put together the platypus, and porcupine was humorless? Jesus cultivated laughter in serious circumstances. He spent time at the party and in fellowship with others.
If the God of the universe loves laughter and deems a cheerful heart good medicine, then what are we doing to promote healthy laughter? Look around you. There is humor everywhere. A joyful heart gives us a clearer view of reality! It puts problems on the outside rather than keeping them trapped inside our souls.
Karisa Moore knows what it’s like to cry out to God with groans that words cannot express. Losing her oldest son in 2014 to suicide, she is expanding our mental health vocabulary to include Christ-centered hope through creative expression.
She embraces life alongside her husband and two living children. She loves long hikes, photography, and great stories. Karisa is the author of Broken Butterflies: Emerging Through Grief and Turn the Page: Devotions to Help the Griever Hope. To find mental health resources and share your story of hope, follow her at http://www.turningthepageonsuicide.org.
Find Karisa’s book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/1hzWR2u
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